Landing on your feet

October 14, 2017

You watch
Aidan O’Shea or Kieran Donaghy leap high in the air to catch a ball. Do you
ever wonder how they land squarely on their feet (mostly), without regularly
smashing an ankle? Or have you wondered how you can touch your nose or strum a
guitar with your eyes closed?

We are all familiar with the five
senses (I.e. sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing) but there is another type of sense, often referred to as the ‘sixth
sense’ which we don’t hear or think about very much. Proprioception is the name
of this lesser known ‘sense’. It is the part of the nervous system that tells
us where our body parts (eg foot, ankle) are in space at any given time. It is
so tied up with general movement that we overlook its subtle influence.

It is often only when we lose this sense
that we become aware of its importance. This is common with injuries such as
ankle sprains. It is also why we find it easy to ‘turn’ on the same ankle again
on return to active sport. We often fail to retrain our lost proprioception
faculty. For example with ankle injuries the ‘wobble board’ is a good
retraining device. The irregular, erratic movements created while balancing on
the board help to recreate proprioceptive pathways. There is some evidence that
using taping techniques over the injured ankle can help in the relay of signals
during the recovery phase.

We are using proprioceptive retraining
exercises to help the athlete get the proprioceptive impulses back under their unconscious control. Then you can focus on what to actually do with the ball.

But proprioception is not only for
athletes. It is important for everybody, especially as we get older, to engage
in simple exercises to maintain this marvellous sixth sense.